Random Acts of Kindness: A 30-Day Challenege

Michele Robert Poche

It seemed easy enough. Do something nice for someone else, stranger or otherwise, for 30 days straight. Nothing I did was that difficult, and everything I did was rewarding. The hardest part was simply remembering to perform an act of kindness every day. It’s easy to get caught up in our lives, to absent¿mindedly walk through public places, to buzz hurriedly past someone who may be struggling or hurting. To make random kindness a habit – that was the challenge.

The secret to success is to make this promise to yourself: I will, for 30 days, take a moment out of my schedule to put someone else’s needs ahead of mine, with absolutely nothing expected in return.

Volunteer to visit with lonely patients at a nursing home.

Remove trash from a park or sidewalk.

Buy a lottery ticket for a stranger.

Organize a teddy bear drive for needy children.

Compliment a stranger.

Send a care package to a deployed member of the military.

Buy coffee or a treat for the person in line behind you.

Put coins in someone else’s parking meter.

Buy a coworker a small gift anonymously.

Give a generous tip to the wait staff or delivery person.

Give up your seat to someone on the bus or subway.

Bring in a neighbor’s trash cans.

Let a mom and crying baby go in front of you at the grocery store.

Let someone else have the good parking spot.

Give a ride to a neighbor.

Buy a restaurant gift card for a homeless person.

Shovel and salt your neighbor’s sidewalk.

Leave a good book or magazine on a bus or in a waiting room.

Speak with three people you see every day, but have never met.

Donate blood.

Compliment a stranger on her children.

Stop to purchase what a child is selling.

Help a stranger with a task, like changing a tire or carrying groceries.